Handicapped Louisiana man has 10-year sentence reduced

La-Legal
January, 2003

The Louisiana Third Circuit Court of Appeals
recently reversed a sentence of eight years at hard labor that had been
reduced from a ten year sentence for a man who threatened to blow up the
office that took his daughter from him. Lawrence Suire pleaded guilty to
"communicating of false information of planned arson" and was originally
sentenced to ten years at hard labor. The appeals court remanded the case
finding that the sentence was too harsh. Suire was then sentenced to eight
years after a new hearing.

Suire was handicapped and had custody of his
eleven year old daughter. The Office of Community Services in New Iberia,
Louisiana, took custody away from Suire for reasons that are unclear, but
apparently resulted from the daughter having hallucinations after a weekend
visit with her mother. After six months of separation from his daughter,
undergoing psychological exams, and then being told he had to undergo more
psychological exams without any explanation as to why, Suire admits that he
"lost it" and did something stupid. He stated at trial that because of the
frustration of not having the money to fight the arbitrary decisions of the
Office of Community Services, he wrote a note with the plans for a bomb and
had the note together with a "device" delivered by his brother to the Office
of Community Services in a plastic bag. The device turned out to be a
telephone pager. The appeals court, finding that the sentence is once again
excessive, has sent the case back to the trial court yet again for
re-sentencing.